This invention relates to a method and apparatus for sewing and cutting work pieces such as the front plackets on knitted golf shirts and like garments, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for sewing a double line of stitching in a work product such as placket assembly of a knit shirt and simultaneously cutting between the lines of stiching and subsequently accurately positioning the work product at an adjacent cutting station and cutting through the work product with a cut that intersects the previously formed cut.
The front or placket portion of a knit shirt can be formed by various cutting and sewing procedures, and one of the prior art procedures includes the steps of sewing a double line of stitching through a three piece placket assembly which includes the shirt front pattern part from the neck opening of the shirt front pattern part down toward its bottom edge while simultaneously cutting between the lines of stitching to form the placket opening. Once the sewing and cutting of the placket opening has been completed, an inverted V-shaped cut is made at the lower end of the placket opening. It is important that the inverted V-shaped cut be accurately placed, with the apex of the V aligned with the end of the previously formed placket opening so that the garment is properly and accurately formed with an inverted Y-shaped opening.
In the past, the worker's procedures for forming the shirt placket assembly required the sewing machine operator to pick up the pattern parts of the three-piece placket, assemble the parts, and sew the parts together. The operator sews, for example, two parallel lines of stitching one and one half inches apart, or any predetermined distance apart, and a cutting mechanism located between the lines of stitching cuts the placket opening as the placket assembly is being sewn, with the opening being formed down to approximately one inch from the ends of the two lines of stitching. At this point, the operator raises the presser foot of the machine, pulls the partially completed work product out from beneath the needles of the sewing machine and cuts the top and bottom threads. Before the operator removes the placket assembly from the work station she takes a pair of hand scissors and attempts to cut the inverted V-shaped cut in the placket. This requires the operator to grasp the hand scissors with one hand and the partially completed garment part with the other hand and accurately cut through the three plies of material, cutting both sides of the V at the end of the previously formed center cut to finish out the inverted Y-shaped placket opening. When the inverted V-shaped cut has been formed the operator's functions have been completed and she passes the now-completed garment part to a temporary storage container, etc., for movement to the next work station. In some garment manufacturing plants the inverted V-shaped cut, or "crow's foot" cut, is made by hand at the subsequent work station.
The prior art also includes power cutting systems such as pneumatic cylinder impact cutters, where a crow's foot cut can be formed by positioning a placket assembly of a garment beneath the cutting blade and actuating the cylinder. A problem with the prior existing systems for cutting the crow's foot in a garment is that an operator is required to precisely position the garment part beneath the air-loaded knife which forms the V-shaped cut. Accurate alignment of the apex of the V-shaped cutting blade and the end of the placket opening is dependent upon the hand and eye coordination of the operator. Thus, with both the hand-held scissors cutting procedure and the impact cutting procedures the formation of the crow's foot cut is frequently improperly done and a substantial amount of operator time is required to accurately form the cut.